CONTRIBUTION OF INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES IN MEETING BASIC NEEDS IN KADELSO

Abstract

Income Generation Activities in rural areas focus on improving agriculture and rural non farm activities, Income Generation Activities is a way of improving household income (Canberra, 2000). Improved income enables the poor to build assets, reduce vulnerability to disasters and improve their food security. The picture created of households lI1 Less Developed Countries (LDC) shows that, household focus almost exclusively on fanning and embarks on little rural non-farm (RNF) activity. However, farming and non-farming activities are linked through investment, production and consumption throughout the rural economy, farming and non-farming activities form part of the complex livelihood strategies adopted by household in rural areas as a mechanism for managing risk and pathways out of poverty. Risk is one of the countless dimensions of Income generating activities. Risk exposure causes low interest to invest in a high risk but high return income generating activity, therefore in an attempt to avoid risk, households takes costly precautionary actions, which contribute to low household income. Functional markets are essential for income generating activities to raise the much needed income, hence meet the basic needs of households. In rural areas, market participation is uncertain, risky and is characterized by unfavourable terms. Under such risky conditions, many households seek to limit their investments in market-oriented crops. Access to remunerative and reliable produce markets enable farming households to increase their farm incornes. This research examines the problem of "high risk and inaccessible functional market in Kadelso area", employing systematic random sampling strategy in selecting households in Kadelso for the collection of data. Data on household income and income generating activities of households where collected by administering structured questionnaire to heads of households, using the household as the basic unit of analysis. Total income is calculated as the sum of nonfarm income, farm income and unearned income from scholarships, interest income, social benefits and net transfers. Total nonfarm income includes self-employment and wage income from all nonfarm jobs. Farm income is calculated as the sum of farm wages for all household members and income from the peasant farm, which includes income from crops and animals. Crop income is obtained by multiplying the volume harvested times sales prices at the market level. Livestock income consists of income from sold live animals and raw animal products, such as meat, eggs, milk and skin. The share of income as a measure of activity is used to calculate the share of the various sources of income to the household income. SPSS and Excel where used to analyze the relationship between risk, access market and income generating activities to come out with the findings. Farm mcome contributes the highest share of household mcome in Kadelso, the source of risk to mcome generating activities m Kadelso are Fulani activities (farm destruction) and bad roads which results in inaccessible functional market. It is recommended that a settlement scheme for the Fulani headsmen within the area is developed to settle all Fulani headsmen separately from the farmers and also promote the introduction of public transport system to cart farm products to market centres hence breaking the vicious poverty cycle created by middle men and women.